In plants where loose material is processed it is often necessary to take samples of the loose material and in particular to study their composition. The loose material can in particular be mineral and chemical material as well as foodstuffs. In order to obtain representative samples of loose material for the relevant studies in a laboratory, the samples are taken from a resting quantity of loose material or from a flowing stream of loose material, and the sample quantity is generally too large and must then be divided up into representative sub-samples which are suitable for processing. It is for this purpose that the sample divider is used in practice.
One construction of a sample divider which is used very frequently in the art is the so-called riffle sample divider in which a sample of loose material to be divided up is delivered to a delivery funnel with a connecting pipe or connecting shaft arranged below it from which the starting sample is led to a divider which consists essentially of a row of rods arranged so that they are spaced from one another and form parallel slots and are inclined alternately towards two different sides, by means of which a starting sample should be evenly distributed to two sample collecting vessels. If a starting sample is to be divided into a larger number of sub-samples, then each of the sub-samples must be divided up again or a number of times, which is extremely laborious above all for large installations preparing samples in large laboratories.
A further construction is also known in the art in which a rotating pipe is arranged inside a symmetrical conical or biconical container, is driven by an appropriate drive means so that it rotates uniformly and connects an upper central sample delivery pipe successively to a plurality of sub-sample collecting vessels provided at the lower end of the container. In this known sample divider it is necessary for the rotating pipe to reliably retained and mounted and for a suitably arranged and continuously operating rotary drive arrangement to be provided.